Page 26 - GALIET EMPATHY and Byron´s Hero IV

sympathy for the ideal will save them. From Manfred’s ill-fated hour, his sympathy for human ideals overcomes him. Manfred 3⁄4 magician, capable of beckoning and overpowering liminal and chthonic spirits, neither thirsts nor craves for power nor honour nor apotheosis. Childe Harold 3⁄4 planetary wanderer, neither wants worldly phlegm nor gazes downward turned.46 Idealists and ever-disillusioned heroes whose love is the root of rage,47 always self-alienating and feeling compelled to denounce human nature’s excessive vices.
Not wearing the chain of human ties, Byron’s heroes share the sympathies of love: Manfred loves Astarte48 and Childe Harold his Clarens: birthplace of deep love,49 the very path trod by angels50 where Love is learned. In his capacious idealism, the Byronic Hero craves for that which he lacks: Aristotle’s measured life, that golden mean between passion and action. Childe Harold, decrying oppression and the pitiless use of
46 Childe Harold. III. 75. Heath, William. Major British Poets of the Romantic Period. New York: McMillan Publishing Co., 1973.
47 Childe Harold. III, 85, 97. Heath, William. Major British Poets of the Romantic Period. New York: McMillan Publishing Co., 1973.
48 Manfred. II.2.98-104. Heath, William. Major British Poets of the Romantic Period. New York: McMillan Publishing Co., 1973.
49 Childe Harold. 98-104. Heath, William. Major British Poets of the Romantic Period. New York: McMillan Publishing Co., 1973
50 Childe Harold. 100. Heath, William. Major British Poets of the Romantic Period. New York: McMillan Publishing Co., 1973.
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